Exporting Security: International Engagement, Security Cooperation, and the Changing Face of the U.S. Military

Derek S. Reveron

Sep 2010 · Georgetown University Press

About this ebook

Given U.S. focus on the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is easy to miss that the military does much more than engage in combat. On any given day, military engineers dig wells in East Africa, medical personnel provide vaccinations in Latin America, and special forces mentor militaries in southeast Asia.

To address today's security challenges, the military partners with civilian agencies, NGOs, and the private sector both at home and abroad. By doing so, the United States seeks to improve its international image, strengthen the state sovereignty system by training and equipping partners’ security forces, prevent localized violence from escalating into regional crises, and protect U.S. national security by addressing underlying conditions that inspire and sustain violent extremism.

In Exporting Security, Derek Reveron provides a comprehensive analysis of the shift in U.S. foreign policy from coercive diplomacy to cooperative military engagement, examines how and why the U.S. military is an effective tool of foreign policy, and explores the methods used to reduce security deficits around the world.

About the author

Derek S. Reveron is a professor of national security affairs and the EMC Informationist Chair at the U.S. Naval War College. He is coeditor of Inside Defense: Understanding the 21st Century Military and Flashpoints in the War on Terrorism, and is editor of America’s Viceroys: The Military and US Foreign Policy.